


Life After Death

by reuspuer



Category: Naruto
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-17
Updated: 2019-10-17
Packaged: 2020-12-20 17:48:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,739
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21060704
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reuspuer/pseuds/reuspuer
Summary: Frankenstein AU where Orochimaru is Frankenstein and Juugo is his monster.Sasuke's POV





	Life After Death

Life didn’t seem so mysterious to Orochimaru. Sasuke had seen him in a frenzy to create his very own. Kabuto would bring Orochimaru food and drink on a silver tray so he never had to leave the lab. The exhaustion alone would have taken a better man down, but Orochimaru wasn’t a better man. He was a fear driven snake trying any way possible to find the key to immortality. Sasuke didn’t bother to take after his teacher in his quest; he had better things to do.  
Unfortunately while Kabuto was in charge of gathering the necessary materials, Sasuke had to do everything else around the hideout. Whenever Sasuke returned to his room, there would be a slip of paper waiting to instruct him of his next task. The never ending laundry list wasn’t necessarily a bad thing though. The constant momentum kept him from ever feeling like he wasn’t progressing.  
Six months of nonstop errands and micro-managing a high maintenance facility had shaped Sasuke’s self imposed silence into a subconscious one. No word he did utter was ever wasted. When he did run into a talkative person behind a counter or on the street, interaction felt alien to him. Nods and ‘mn’s had become integral to his vocabulary because opening his mouth began to feel like reopening a wound. He wanted his scab to finally heal over. Continuing to talk was going to leave him with a nasty scar.  
Kabuto liked to mention that he enjoyed not hearing Sasuke’s voice but Sasuke could tell the repeated joke tended to pop up the most when Orochimaru had not been heard from in a couple of days. The suspense must have been killing Kabuto because even he wasn’t allowed in the lab anymore. Sometimes Kabuto would bring in a box of dirty lab equipment and plop it next to Sasuke and the two of them would clean each one together. Sasuke would clean off one at a time and then Kabuto would sterilize each one like an assembly line. Though the two didn’t quite get along, mainly due to both of them being assholes, the company didn’t hurt.  
After cleaning the utensils, Kabuto would bring the box back to the laboratory for them to get dirty all over again. But this time Sasuke could hear the door catch oddly in the hall. Investigation was required. Lightly padding his way down the corridor, Sasuke caught the grim face of Kabuto holding an unconscious Orochimaru over his shoulder. Sasuke relieved Kabuto of the dead weight and slowly carried him to Kabuto’s workspace. Kabuto had pulled out an IV and prepped it off to the side of a table where Sasuke laid Orochimaru. Kabuto then pulled up the sleeve of Orochimaru’s lab coat so that it bunched into tight waves of fabric. He ran his thumb across the exposed arm and stuck the IV into the vein that he held in place with a thumb and forefinger.  
Sasuke watched as Kabuto elevated the bag with his left hand and checked Orochimaru’s vitals with his right. The natural ease to which Kabuto handled Orochimaru implied that he had most likely done this same thing 50 times over with all sorts of patients. Sasuke could envision the sadistic chuckle rising out of Kabuto’s throat behind a surgical mask and was grateful he had never been on that table.  
Slowly the color fleshed out Orochimaru’s skin and his body became sluggishly animated. Kabuto slid his right index and middle finger to the carotid artery on Orochimaru’s smooth neck. A flash of white wrapped around Kabuto’s wrist.  
“That’ll be all Kabuto.” Orochimaru chided. “Sasuke. Get me something to eat.”  
Sasuke’s eyes brushed past Kabuto’s as he left the room. Clearly Orochimaru had forgotten to eat the food Kabuto had delivered and passed out. Kabuto must have been humored just as much as he was. This project was consuming Orochimaru both in mind and body. He always wore a second skin but Sasuke figured the body underneath must look ragged. As he reached the cellar, Sasuke overheard two henchmen bickering about whether or not Lord Orochimaru was even still within the building. The two young men looked up at him in shock as he opened the door.  
Without looking at either of them, Sasuke instructed the young men to retrieve dried fruit and cereal. Sweat rolled down their foreheads as they handed him the food. He looked down at their choices and then spun around and walked swiftly out. The door was undisturbed; leaving the two to wonder if his visit was just a figment of their imagination. The quicker he could give Orochimaru his food, the sooner this whole project could be over with and out of his life. He disliked how long this was taking. Usually Orochimaru’s tasks were ones he could learn from but this one was far too out of his hands. Sitting around and waiting felt like he was slipping that much further away from his brother.  
Knocking on the laboratory door, Sasuke listened as heeled footsteps approached, followed by the low scrape of the lock twisting. Orochimaru had taken off his lab coat and what remained was his collared shirt. The top few buttons were undone and his pale chest sickly glistened under the sterile light. A slender hand was held out and Sasuke placed the food within it. The second hand came to steady the food and the door fell shut.  
Three months dragged on and Orochimaru grew more and more frail. The creation of life was draining him of his own. His fainting became a regular occurrence but this did not stop him in any capacity. Once he was revived by Kabuto, Orochimaru would return right back to his laboratory. Sasuke had only one task left to do for the day and it was a tedious one. Every week he had to do Orochimaru’s laundry. He had to bake the clothes in order to disinfect them which required trips to a different lab that wasn’t in use. From there he had to boil a large bucket of water and preheat the disinfection chamber. While he waited for the water to boil and the chamber to heat, he rinsed the clothes in cold water/vinegar solution and scraped them with a knife to get out any stains or debris. Once the water boiled, he placed it in the chamber and dropped the clothes into the bucket. After setting the time, he had to keep an eye on the chamber in case the heat sparked a fire. When the time was up, he had to pull out each steaming article and hang it up to dry. The next day, if the clothes were dry, he ironed each one and then returned them to Orochimaru’s lab.  
Sasuke had been delegated this task because Orochimaru couldn’t trust anyone else to do it properly aside from Kabuto and he already had his hands full. By the time Sasuke hung up the clothes, he had only three minutes to spare before he could watch the sun set. As he left the laboratory, he saw that Orochimaru’s door was being banged on by something on the other side. The door was supposed to be indestructible so whatever lay beyond it was incredibly strong. The banging halted to a stop and Orochimaru stepped out with his eyes ablaze. He turned his gaze to Sasuke and instructed him to go retrieve Kabuto from his lab.  
Not letting a second go to waste, Sasuke shot down the hall to Kabuto and they both returned practically running the way back. Orochimaru motioned for them to come inside. He was still fixing his hair because it had been torn out of its tie. His clothes had been rearranged as well. Sasuke looked past Orochimaru and into the tattered room. Tables and tools were strewn to the side around a body that was chained to the floor with three attachments to the ground to match the strength of its prisoner. Sasuke’s breath hitched when he saw the heap of flesh in front of him. The naked body was absolutely massive with some of the strongest arms and legs that he had ever seen. The size was not the only abnormal feature of the body. Though Orochimaru did an excellent job of maintaining symmetry, the body was patched with various discolored skin. Obviously originating from different owners. The bald head had two lines of stitching starting from the temples and running down each side of the head to the neck. Every piece of flesh was swollen and angry; not fully alive. It was a beautiful and exact work of art but this body could never be seen by the public eye. It was horrific.  
“Take my creation to the cell I prepared. We’re going to need increased security. It is stronger than I was ready for.” Orochimaru quietly said from behind him. “Use the cart.” Orochimaru shakily laid down on the makeshift bed off to the side and gazed at the body with a sheen of euphoria across his features. Sasuke unlocked the chain from the three attachments and slid his arms under the body’s back side. The skin felt rubbery and thick. Kabuto smiled as he held his end behind the knees. The body was completely dead weight but neither dared do anything other than quickly and silently carry it down to the cells. Any chance in the body waking up would be a serious pain in the ass so both of them only kept grim eye contact with each other. When they got to the cell, Kabuto set the legs down and unlocked 6 dead bolds and then the door. The door was quite heavy so Sasuke had to drag the body inside while Kabuto propped the door open. Once the door was shut tight, Kabuto attached 4 new chains on each ankle to the floor. Then they lifted the body onto a bed bolted to the wall.  
Sasuke watched the body’s chest rise and fall; the thick sound of its breathing much steadier than his heart. The sunset made the room glow through a small and high up window about the size of a book. As he exited the cell, he took one last glance at the body. He wondered what it thought of the sun set. Personally, he felt closure but maybe the body would see it as a beginning.

**Author's Note:**

> The Sunset is a metaphor for Death.


End file.
